In general, a vehicle air conditioning system is adapted to cool or heat an interior of a vehicle by selectively passing exterior air introduced into the interior of the vehicle through an evaporator unit through which a refrigerant flows or a heater core unit through which cooling water of an engine flows to exchange heat, and distributing cold air or hot air to various directions of the interior of the vehicle through a defrost vent, a face vent, and a floor vent communicated with respective portions of the interior of the vehicle.
When a heater or an air conditioner is operated during travelling of a vehicle, various harmful substances such as dust on a road or exhaust gases are introduced into an interior of the vehicle. Especially when a vehicle air conditioning system is operated on a wet day, since bacterial substances such as fungi living in an air conditioning duct are introduced into an interior of a vehicle as they are, an air freshener generating apparatus for purifying air in the interior of the vehicle is mounted on the vehicle.
A conventional air freshener generating apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-237364 (hereinafter, Patent Document 1). As illustrated in FIG. 1, the air freshener generating apparatus 10 of Patent Document 1 is attached to a corner 14 of a glove box 12 by means of a support plate 20. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the air freshener generating apparatus 10 includes a body 68, a cartridge 78, an adjusting member 56, a packing 44, a support plate 20, an actuator 24, etc.
However, in the air freshener generating apparatus 10 of Patent Document 1, since the cartridge 78 is configured to be rotated by the actuator 24 with the packing 44 and the adjusting member 56 being in contact with each other between the cartridge 78 and a seat 32 of the support plate 20, an air freshener may be leaked as the packing 44 and the adjusting member 56 are worn due to their contact.
Meanwhile, since a rectangular opening 34 is formed in the seat 32 of the support plate 20 and a square opening 58 is formed in the adjusting member 56 such that an air freshener is leaked when the cartridge 78 rotates and moves, different types of air fresheners may be introduced into an interior of the vehicle.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,988 (hereinafter, Patent Document 2) discloses an air freshener generating apparatus 1 in which an inlet pipe 31 is formed on the front side of an evaporator 23 and an outlet pipe 32 is formed on a side of a duct and which is configured to intermittently control air fresheners with a plurality of control valves 12A to 12D.
However, since the air freshener generating apparatus 1 of Patent Document 2 needs a plurality of control valves 12A to 12D, a valve control circuit 13, and selection switches 14A, 14B, and 14C to intermittently control different air fresheners, a mechanism required to discharge the air fresheners is complex.